WarningYour internet explorer is in compatibility mode and may not be displaying the website correctly.
You can fix this by pressing 'F12' on your keyboard, Selecting 'Document Mode' and choosing 'standards' (or the latest version
listed if standards is not an option).

GET NEW POSTS BY EMAIL

AC/DC Blog Posts

AC/DC Blog Posts

Have you ever plugged one too many devices into an electrical circuit? This can overload the circuit and damage its components. To avoid this issue, many homes have devices like electric switch circuit breakers to interrupt the current when a critical current is reached. Other types of circuit breakers are used to prevent issues in high-voltage situations, like citywide power lines. In this blog post, we discuss using simulation to study a class of heavy-duty circuit breakers: magnetic power switches.

Categories

The latest version of the AC/DC Module enables you to create electrostatics models that combine wires, surfaces, and solids. The technology is known as the boundary element method and can be used on its own or in combination with finite-element-method-based modeling. In this blog post, let’s see how the new functionality can be used to conveniently set up a model that includes a number of very thin spiral wires.

Categories

Capacitance calculations in the COMSOL Multiphysics® software seem easy. If you only have two conductors, the recipe is simple: Take one conductor and set it to grounded, set the other as a terminal, and compute the solution. Then, a built-in variable delivers the capacitance. But what if you have more than two conductors, like in touchscreens, transmission lines, and capacitive sensors? If standard textbook terminology has you lost, follow along with this working example of calculating a capacitance matrix.

Categories

Permanent magnet motors are useful in various high-end applications, but they come with design limitations. One example is their sensitivity to high temperatures, which can result from heat losses generated by currents — specifically, eddy currents. Version 5.3 of the COMSOL® software includes functionality to capture eddy current losses in the permanent magnets of such motors. Engineers can use these results to better understand the full behavior of permanent magnet motors and identify ways to optimize their performance.

Categories

If you design electromagnetic coils, the combination of the AC/DC and Optimization modules with the COMSOL Multiphysics® software gives you the power to quickly come up with improved design iterations. Today, we will look at designing a coil system to achieve a desired magnetic field distribution by changing the coil’s driving currents. We will also introduce three different optimization objectives and constraints. This topic is of interest to anyone who is modeling coils or curious about optimization.

Categories

When a superconducting magnet suddenly transitions to a normal state — known as a quench — its coils may overheat. Quench detection and protection systems are often included in the magnets to enable safer operation. For these systems to be effective, it’s important to understand the resulting electrothermal transient phenomena that take place within the magnet. Using numerical simulation, we can develop sophisticated systems that prevent possible disruption effects.

Categories

Helmholtz coils are used by scientists to generate uniform magnetic fields to study electromagnetism and its characteristics. These devices are used in MRI, spectroscopy, magnetoresistance measurements, and equipment calibrations. Here, we’ll look at what Helmholtz coils are, why they are important, and using a simulation-based approach to their design.

Categories

In the 1800s, two scientists — Nikola Tesla and Galileo Ferraris — separately invented their own versions of AC induction motors. Such AC motors turned out to be reliable alternatives to the DC motors that were popular at the time. To accurately study induction motors, we must account for the multiple physics that occur. As today’s example illustrates, we can include the electromechanical effects in version 5.3 of the COMSOL Multiphysics® software.

Categories

When designing electromagnetic coils, we may want to adjust the position of the coils to achieve a desired magnetic field strength within a particular region of space. This is possible to do within the COMSOL Multiphysics® software by using the add-on AC/DC Module and Optimization Module to combine parameter and shape optimization. Let’s find out how.

Categories

Have you ever wanted to query the results of your model within an arbitrary geometric subregion? You might think that this requires adding geometries to a model and recomputing the solution. Instead, in the COMSOL Multiphysics® software, we can just add and reposition a part solely for the purpose of evaluating the results. We will demonstrate this in the context of computing mutual inductance between coils and discuss simpler techniques that can be used for a reduced set of cases.

Categories

Thermoelectric coolers come in various types and sizes, including single-stage and multistage devices. Their application area is large, as they are used in both consumer products like cooling boxes and as temperature controllers in satellites. If you are looking to analyze the design of a thermoelectric cooler and optimize it for a specific application area, a simulation app is an efficient way to accomplish your goals. We discuss how to use the Thermoelectric Cooler demo app in this blog post.

Categories

The latest version of the AC/DC Module enables you to create electrostatics models that combine wires, surfaces, and solids. The technology is known as the boundary element method and can be used on its own or in combination with finite-element-method-based modeling. In this blog post, let’s see how the new functionality can be used to conveniently set up a model that includes a number of very thin spiral wires.

Categories

Helmholtz coils are used by scientists to generate uniform magnetic fields to study electromagnetism and its characteristics. These devices are used in MRI, spectroscopy, magnetoresistance measurements, and equipment calibrations. Here, we’ll look at what Helmholtz coils are, why they are important, and using a simulation-based approach to their design.

Categories

Capacitance calculations in the COMSOL Multiphysics® software seem easy. If you only have two conductors, the recipe is simple: Take one conductor and set it to grounded, set the other as a terminal, and compute the solution. Then, a built-in variable delivers the capacitance. But what if you have more than two conductors, like in touchscreens, transmission lines, and capacitive sensors? If standard textbook terminology has you lost, follow along with this working example of calculating a capacitance matrix.

Categories

In the 1800s, two scientists — Nikola Tesla and Galileo Ferraris — separately invented their own versions of AC induction motors. Such AC motors turned out to be reliable alternatives to the DC motors that were popular at the time. To accurately study induction motors, we must account for the multiple physics that occur. As today’s example illustrates, we can include the electromechanical effects in version 5.3 of the COMSOL Multiphysics® software.

Categories

Permanent magnet motors are useful in various high-end applications, but they come with design limitations. One example is their sensitivity to high temperatures, which can result from heat losses generated by currents — specifically, eddy currents. Version 5.3 of the COMSOL® software includes functionality to capture eddy current losses in the permanent magnets of such motors. Engineers can use these results to better understand the full behavior of permanent magnet motors and identify ways to optimize their performance.

Categories

When designing electromagnetic coils, we may want to adjust the position of the coils to achieve a desired magnetic field strength within a particular region of space. This is possible to do within the COMSOL Multiphysics® software by using the add-on AC/DC Module and Optimization Module to combine parameter and shape optimization. Let’s find out how.

Categories

If you design electromagnetic coils, the combination of the AC/DC and Optimization modules with the COMSOL Multiphysics® software gives you the power to quickly come up with improved design iterations. Today, we will look at designing a coil system to achieve a desired magnetic field distribution by changing the coil’s driving currents. We will also introduce three different optimization objectives and constraints. This topic is of interest to anyone who is modeling coils or curious about optimization.

Categories

Have you ever wanted to query the results of your model within an arbitrary geometric subregion? You might think that this requires adding geometries to a model and recomputing the solution. Instead, in the COMSOL Multiphysics® software, we can just add and reposition a part solely for the purpose of evaluating the results. We will demonstrate this in the context of computing mutual inductance between coils and discuss simpler techniques that can be used for a reduced set of cases.

Categories

When a superconducting magnet suddenly transitions to a normal state — known as a quench — its coils may overheat. Quench detection and protection systems are often included in the magnets to enable safer operation. For these systems to be effective, it’s important to understand the resulting electrothermal transient phenomena that take place within the magnet. Using numerical simulation, we can develop sophisticated systems that prevent possible disruption effects.

Categories

Thermoelectric coolers come in various types and sizes, including single-stage and multistage devices. Their application area is large, as they are used in both consumer products like cooling boxes and as temperature controllers in satellites. If you are looking to analyze the design of a thermoelectric cooler and optimize it for a specific application area, a simulation app is an efficient way to accomplish your goals. We discuss how to use the Thermoelectric Cooler demo app in this blog post.